Serena Williams

Serena Williams says she has never liked the word retirement, but that she is evolving away from tennis after winning 23 Grand Slams across her iconic ...

"Maybe she doesn't have the record of 24, but what she's accomplished as well as her back story to achieve what she's achieved. "No question about it, she is the greatest male or female tennis player at the moment. I'm a fan of them and I want to say thank you to them." "Unfortunately I wasn't ready to win Wimbledon this year," she added in the article. "I know there's a fan fantasy that I might have tied Margaret that day in London, then maybe beat her record in New York, and then at the trophy ceremony say, 'See ya!' I get that. You talk about tennis to a black person and it's the Williams sisters, that's just what it is. I looked up to them and I still do. Williams noted that her and her partner Alexis are trying for another child, and that she did not want to be pregnant as an athlete again. "When I tell people in the neighbourhood 'I'm a tennis player' they're like 'oh so you're trying to do that Williams sister thing?'. They're a staple. "Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution. "I've been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. I've been thinking of this as a transition but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people.

TENNIS ICON Serena Williams is to quit the sport, although she is not giving a firm date for her exit. Writing in the latest edition of Vogue, ...

And the lead-up tournaments will be fun.” I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.” The 23-time Grand Slam singles’ winner added: “Unfortunately I wasn’t ready to win Wimbledon this year.

The 23-time Grand Slam champion and Olympic gold medallist plans to focus on her family and business interests.

The American is one of the greatest tennis players of all time. We take a look back at what has been a remarkable career.

Williams passed Graf’s Open era record with her 23rd grand slam singles title after her victory in Melbourne. Margaret Court’s overall record of 24, however, remains just out of reach. Another notable achievement came at the London Olympics in 2012 when she became the first player in history to win all four majors and the Olympics in both singles and doubles over the course of a career. Hingis had been the best player in the world until the rise of the Williams sisters, and the victory confirmed a new era had begun.

Serena Williams is retiring from tennis. 'It's the hardest thing that I could ever imagine,' the legendary tennis has announced in the latest issue of Vogue ...

She won the final three games to take the first set, then surged ahead in the second after the 57th-ranked Parrizas-Diaz took a 4-3 lead. It's just the second tournament of the season for the 40-year-old Williams, who returned to competition at Wimbledon just over a month ago. Serena was nine at the time, and quickly became the top-ranked player under the age of 10 in what was, and remains, a largely white sport. Both Venus and Serena have fallen victim to age and injury in recent years, though. Serena (near left, right) was introduced to the world as the younger half of the famed Williams Sisters. (Left) She and older sister Venus pose for pictures before a Wimbledon semifinals meeting in 2000. Seemed poised to secure a calendar Grand Slam at the 2015 U.S. Open but lost to Italy's Roberta Vinci in semi-final. - 2015: Beat Maria Sharapova in the 2015 Australian Open final to secure her 19th Grand Slam title. But these days, if I have to choose between building my tennis résumé and building my family, I choose the latter.' For starters, she's currently playing in a tournament in Toronto, and actually just won her first match in 430 days on Monday after battling health issues for much of the past few seasons. 'I have never liked the word,' Williams wrote in the latest issue of Vogue. 'It doesn't feel like a modern word to me. If I were a guy, I wouldn't be writing this because I'd be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family. 'Maybe the best word to describe what I'm up to is evolution,' she continued.

Arguably the best female tennis player in history, Serena Williams, is set to finish her career following the next grand slam in the United States. During a press conference on her home turf, the tennis steamroller stated her intent to move away from ...

I need to be two feet into tennis or two feet out,” she confessed to Vogue. “I’ve been reluctant to admit that I have to move on from playing tennis. However, each day new stars are born, such as WTA’s number one Polish Iga Świątek. It is but a matter of time before new bold players get discovered. I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. It comes up, and I start to cry. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.

Greg Rusedski has backed Serena Williams to 'do a Pete Sampras' and win the 2022 US Open as the tennis legend confirmed her retirement plan.

‘Maybe she doesn’t have the record of 24, but what she’s accomplished as well as her back story to achieve what she’s achieved. She is a complete athlete. But before Williams retires, she will play the final Grand Slam of the year at the US Open – which runs from August 29 to September 11 – as she looks to lift her seventh Flushing Meadows crown in New York after she first won it in 1999.

Celebrities and sports stars have sent their well wishes and messages of encouragement to Serena Williams after she announced her plans to step away from ...

I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. John McEnroe spoke to USTA Today about the impact Williams has had on the game and her place in the upper echelons of sporting immortality. Meanwhile, Coco Gauff, the current world No 11, credited Williams as her inspiration for wanting to play the game of tennis. “Her place in American society has gone to a place where she deserves it after everything she’s accomplished, everything she’s done. Since announcing her intentions to step away from the sport, fellow celebrities and sporting greats have sent messages of encouragement to the icon.

Billie Jean King has described Serena Williams as tennis's 'greatest player' following the 23-time grand slam singles champion's announcement that she will ...

Paying her own tribute to Williams, Emma Raducanu, the US Open champion, said: “She definitely changed the game. Pam Shriver, the former world No 3, added: “She [Williams] has impacted tennis on the court and off the court. Speaking to USA Today, the former men’s world No 1, John McEnroe, said of Williams: “She should do whatever she wants.

Her record of 23 grand slam singles titles in the Open era stands alone but Williams' tennis legacy goes far beyond statistics.

After giving birth at the age of 36, she returned and eventually compiled a run of four grand slam finals in six events late in her 30s. It began with the turbulence of teenage success, a US Open champion at 17 in 1999, then the two and a half years it took for her to win a second. Less credited are Serena Williams’s other defining qualities; her intelligence, her court sense, her ability to problem-solve under suffocating pressure and find a solution on the court. Considering the number of setbacks that Williams has been forced to reckon with because of injury, depression and life‑threatening illness, her longevity is hard to believe. At the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant with her daughter, Alexis Olympia, Williams surpassed Graf to secure the Open-era record of a 23rd grand slam title. Seven years ago, as Serena Williams continued to consolidate her career records and her claims as the greatest of all time, a reporter asked her to identify the all-time record in her sights.

The tennis great's decision is a stark reminder that even in 2022, women's time is still not our own. Serena Williams waving to the crowd at Wimbledon, ...

Williams’s retirement – and the fact that she has been so open about resenting that she must make this choice – are stark reminders that even in 2022, women’s time is often not our own. “I’m going to miss that version of me, that girl who played tennis,” Williams said at the end of her farewell. It is something that many women have dreamt about – the opportunity to be fully invested in our careers while we are at work and fully invested in our families outside of it. It is noticeable in sport because of its public visibility and because it is a physically demanding job. She is making a choice that women all over the world make every day: family or career? Except that in Williams’s mind, it would not be a fairytale.

Saying “the countdown has begun,” 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams announced on Tuesday that she is ready to step away from tennis so she can ...

Williams said she and Ohanian want to have a second baby, and wrote: “I definitely don’t want to be pregnant again as an athlete. And I don’t know if I will be ready to win New York," Williams wrote in her essay. “Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that record. She was off the tour for about a year after getting injured during her first-round match at Wimbledon in 2021. They can wear what they want and say what they want and kick butt and be proud of it all.” That unflinching desire to be the best helped make her the best — and also sometimes got her into trouble with chair umpires during matches, most infamously during the 2018 U.S. Open final she lost to Naomi Osaka, a woman more than a decade younger who grew up idolizing Williams, as have so many of today’s players. I’m torn: I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next.” I mean, that’s the reason why I play tennis,” Coco Gauff, an 18-year-old African-American who was the runner-up at this year’s French Open, said Tuesday. “Tennis being a predominantly white sport, it definitely helped a lot, because I saw somebody who looked like me dominating the game. “Serena Williams is a generational, if not multigenerational, talent who had a profound impact on the game of tennis, but an even greater influence on women in sports, business and society. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads,” she wrote. “There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction.

The 23-time grand slam champion is set to retire after the US Open.

And I’m going to miss you.” A winner of 23 grand slam singles titles in the open era, Williams is just one behind the all-time record held by Australian Margaret Court. In her essay she suggested that the 2022 US Open, which starts on 29 August, will be her farewell event. The way I see it, I should have had 30-plus grand slams.” “I want to grow that family.” I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me.” Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.